1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a method, and a program for monitoring apparatuses that output a medium such as a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, stores offer services for copying and printing photographs by utilizing a copying machine. However, in these services, a user often leaves a document and an output medium behind.
To address such a problem, in a technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-84403, when a user uses a printer, the printer urges the user to discharge a document at predetermined timing, thereby preventing the document from being left.
However, there is a case in which a user does not notice an indication or a caution sound which urges the user to discharge a document, or leaves a discharged document on a stand. Further, there is a case in which a user takes out an original document but leaves an outputted printed matter behind.
When a printed matter is left behind, it is difficult for a manager of a printing machine such as a store clerk to confirm that a person who returns to the store to get the document or the printed matter back is a possessor of the document who left it behind.